Fragments Gallery
Abandoned
"It almost seems new," Christine commented. Her tone was full of authority and her words precise. She purposely strode along the abandoned platform, eyes lingering on every detail in the architecture. Behind her walked a young man, her son Andrew. He blindly followed along, sleepily yawning.
"Such a waste," she commented again, her tongue clicking in disdain. "This whole platform, this whole building is fine, or was fine rather. Now it's just neglected."
She stopped walking, and looked intently around, slowly nodding as she turned.
"I think we could make this work," she said, turning to look at her son, "We could have this place up and running again."
He coughed, her words catching him mid yawn, and then asked incredulously, "You want to buy this place?"
"Of course," her tone held authority and she held him in her unwavering gaze, "Why else would I want to come out here?"
"I don't know," he exclaimed, looking around the abandoned old train station through new eyes, "Why would you want this place?"
The station around them wasn't more than forty years old, but it was clear that it had seen no upkeep or cleaning for the last few years. Structurally it was sound, at least that's what the engineers his mother employed had told them, but visually it was a mess.
Dust streaked everything from the formerly white walls to the windows lining the train station. Old rotting trash lurked in the corners of the station, some of the old trash cans which stood alongside the old benches still held plastic bags which now were filled with green water. The tile beneath his feet was elaborately patterned but also speckled by mud and grime. The entire place felt forlorn and empty and the grey skies overhead did little to combat that atmosphere.
Dirty paint peeled from the walls, the paint was so grungy he couldn’t even tell what colour it had originally been. Everywhere he looked windows were smashed, tile was showing the wear of no upkeep and the surrounding forest had begun to reclaim the abandoned ground. It might not be ready to fall down for a while, but it certainly would take a lot of work to return it to its former glory.
"Why was this place shut down?" He asked skeptically, when his mother failed to respond to the first question.
"Didn't you read the report,” Christine asked sharply. She sighed when he shook his head, "Of course you didn't."
He had read a little of it but not all. Still he didn’t bother to tell her that and instead shrugged as if to say, did you really expect me to?
"I want to reopen it," she responded, her eyes latching onto his, "This train station was still fully operational when it was closed down. It was shut down after a disaster on the tracks a short distance down the passage blocked the way through the mountains. Back them it would have cost millions to open the route, so instead they left it closed. Now our engineers believe that we have the equipment to clear the tracks quickly and economically."
"Okay. Well I guess my next question still is; why would we want to open this place up?"
"We need something for you to manage," she said, smiling at him, "It’s time you had a chance to prove yourself."
He stared at her aghast as she turned away to continue her inspection.
"This will do nicely," she murmured as she walked away.
Andrew remained still, frozen in place. She wanted him to do what?